


Summer Days

by paperrun



Category: Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Road Trip, Falling In Love, Flirting, Fluff, Friends but flirty friends, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Requited Love, Romantic Fluff, no beta I have no friends, techincally, technically its a road trip au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-11
Updated: 2021-01-12
Packaged: 2021-03-15 05:42:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28683492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paperrun/pseuds/paperrun
Summary: On the first morning of an abrupt trip to Florida, George meets a cute server with a bright smile at a diner. He's blonde, gorgeous, and everything George's life back home isn't.Or, a road trip AU about falling in love with people who bring out the best in you.
Relationships: Clay | Dream & GeorgeNotFound (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream/GeorgeNotFound (Video Blogging RPF)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 16





	1. I just thought that he could be the one

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone! This is my first fanfiction since I was like twelve, so please excuse any grammar and awkward bits of text! I was loosely inspired by the song Summer Days by Martin Garrix feat. FOB and Macklemore. I would also like to clarify that I don’t actually ship irl George and Clay, but their dynamic is super cool and remind me of me and my own best friend. Dream and George have previously stated they’re fine with fanfiction, but obviously, respect their privacy as this kind of stuff is just for fun. I know very little about their actual personal lives and don't intend to write anything about that, this is purely 100% fiction. Anyways, enjoy!

It’s not that he didn’t think this through, but it’s possible he didn’t really process what he was doing until the flight attendant announced their arrival in Florida. 

It’s a little too late to head back now, not without completely embarrassing himself in front of his family who had looked at him like he’d gone mad for booking a last-minute trip to Orlando for the day after graduation. He would finally be graduating with his bachelor’s in computer science and had an in with his uncle to work some entry-level job as a cybersecurity analyst. It was great really, George knew he was lucky to have such a supportive family and good connections.

That didn’t mean he was immune from the absolute crushing anxiety of finally leaving academia for good and the weight of a job he didn’t even particularly care for. 

So now he’s here, awkwardly moving past hundreds of people in this massive airport trying to find his luggage and praying he can find it before looking like even more of an idiot in the middle of the terminal. By the time he makes it to the cheapest hotel he could find nearby, he’s already pissed off the uber driver and the desk attendant by being so clearly unprepared for his trip that he shuts all the lights off and tries to sleep off his mortification. 

//

By the time he wakes up in the morning he’s got a bit of a better attitude towards his decision, which probably has to do with the warm sunlight beaming in from the giant hotel window, a feeling he hasn’t felt in months in Brightons constant state of cold and dreary weather. 

The feeling abruptly ends when he realizes he has no idea what to do now that he’s there. 

George didn’t bring much with him, just enough clothes to last him a month, his laptop, and his slowly draining debit card. So okay, he really didn’t think this through. 

When he’s finally done wallowing in his own self-pity over what an idiot he is, he pulls out his laptop to try to figure out where he can go to grab some cheap breakfast and hopefully begin his adventure and ignore his future. He settles on a mom and pop diner that’s only a short walk from the hotel, mostly so he doesn’t have to deal with another embarrassing encounter with an uber driver on his way there. What he hadn’t considered was the absolutely disgusting heat and humidity, so that by the time he made his way into the restaurant he was sweating profusely and forced to watch his hair begin to curl and puff while he waited for the server to come by his table. 

He glanced around the dim little restaurant, noting the odd knick nacks littering shelves all around the walls, memorabilia, and old road signs hung up as decor. The yellow lights gave the room a bit of a dingy feel as he watched servers bustling around and being stopped by every old lady needing more coffee as they passed. 

George was focused intently on the large floppy menu looking for what he would order when he heard a man clear his voice above him. 

“Good morning, I’ll be your server for today, have you been here before?” The man is smiling as he says it, and for a minute George is so stunned by this guy’s looks that he forgets to respond. The man is towering over him and has to be at least six feet tall, with fluffy blonde hair and eyes the most interesting shade of green George has seen. The guy clearly works out, and the black apron and uniform shirt are clinging to his form quite nicely. 

“How did you know I’m not from here?” He blurts out, a little more aggressive than he intended. The server either doesn’t notice or doesn’t mind and just grins a little wider a little before responding. 

“Well it was just an educated guess, I work here every morning and you look about forty years younger than the average customer here,” It’s then that George finally takes his eyes off the server and glances around, noting the only other people here look old enough to be his grandmother. 

“And well now I can tell you’re really not from here with an accent like that. Anyways, are you ready to order?” The server, who’s nametag oddly reads ‘Dream’ in messy chalk, has some sort of drawl he assumes is native to Florida, and it must really be doing something for George because he falters a bit before responding again. 

“Uhm no, not exactly. Uh- what is this?” he asks, pointing to a picture of some pile of grey sauce that he had been confused by before Dream came by. 

“Oh I see, yeah that’s chicken fried steak, it’s basically just a really tender piece of steak that’s been fried like chicken and covered in a rich gravy sauce. It sounds like a lot but it’s pretty common down here. Mary got the gravy recipe from her great-grandma, it’s a real fan favorite.” 

The guy is still smiling and at this point, George isn’t sure if he should feel put off by the amount of enthusiasm the guy is able to have this early in the morning.

“Oh okay, if you like it, then yes. Yeah, I’ll get one of those, and a black coffee would be nice- thank you.” He rushes the end a bit, but he says it without blushing too hard. That quickly changes when the server reaches one of his stupidly toned arms over the table to swipe the menu and George’s brain shuts off as the server nods and walks off, grinning to himself like he knows exactly what he’s doing to him. 

The rest of the visit isn’t anything too noteworthy, the food is actually as good as Dream said it was, and George tries not to pretend to be disappointed when some other servers bring around his food and bill at the end of the meal. He catches Dream’s eyes a couple of times on accident before he leaves, and the guy even waves and gives him a small smile as he watches George stumble out of the restaurant.

He spends the rest of the day aimlessly wandering around the other shops in the area, trying not to spend his money already on all the cute little trinkets he finds. He’s feeling better about his decision, and even though he’s practically alone in this busy city the people are nice and seem enamored by George’s accent and clumsy personality. By the time he falls in to bed that day, he’s exhausted and tossing and turning to thoughts about the bright Florida sun and blinding white smiles.

//

He manages to avoid going back to the diner the next day, or at least he was until he’s walking past it to go to some other breakfast joint when his feet magically walk him into the diner and the same section as the day before. He tries to look around for Dream and tries to act nonchalant as the tall blonde strides over to his table. 

“Back again! The steak was good, huh?” He grins, leaning back on one leg with his arms crossed. George notes the way Dream’s arms flex and relax as uncrosses them and pulls the pen behind his ear to take George’s order.

“Oh yeah, uh it was nice. The plate was massive though, do you guys have anything a bit lighter maybe? I’m not exactly a big eater.” He realizes there’s no reason this guy would care, and awkwardly grimaces as he finishes speaking. 

Dream smiles and nods anyway. “All our plates are kind of large, that kind of comes with visiting the south I guess, but our eggs benedict is a bit more of a reasonable size I suppose.” 

George again finds himself unable to speak and rushes quickly through a yes, please. 

“Alright one eggs benedict, I’ll be right back with your order soon.” He grins, already reaching over the table but stopping at George’s confused face. 

“No you won’t” George blurts without thinking. He can feel his face burning up and quickly tries to explain.  
“I just mean that it would be like, another person. Which is fine! I was just uh, confused yesterday. When you weren’t the one who like, brought the food, that’s all” The entire time he’s speaking he knows that his face must look like a freaking stop sign with how red it’s getting because of course, he manages to be an idiot in front of the cute server. 

Dream, like before just laughs, this time bigger with a little wheeze, “Oh man, is that what you were all pouty about yesterday?” He’s got the biggest grin as he talks and at George’s obvious shock and stammering he continues,  
“Don’t you worry about it, I’ll make sure to be the one to bring out your food this time.”

George hardly has a chance to deny that he was most certainly not pouty yesterday, but Dream is already past the kitchen doors by the time he collects himself enough to speak. 

He keeps his cool for the rest of the visit, but he can’t help his grin from showing when Dream comes walking towards him with an armful of food and a steaming cup of coffee he didn’t even order.

//


	2. Ocean Color Stuck on Your Iris

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello!! Here's chapter two!! I don't know if real life Clay has ever even been fishing, but when I found out he was from Florida I couldn't help but picture the classic Florida vibe kinda guy. I don't have family in FL, but I do have family from Georgia and so I based this vaguely on the people I know there.

By the end of his fourth day in Florida, George had been to all the closet shopping malls, eaten his weight in greasy southern food, and spent a little too much time at the diner. He’s not necessarily bored because there’s nothing left to do, but at this point, the fact that he came here alone for an entire month is starting to become more and more obvious. He’s stretched out on the bottom of the bed when he sees his phone light up and starts playing the little tune his mom demanded he put as her ringtone. 

“Georgie! Oh, it’s so good to see you, love, how are you? Not feeling too homesick yet are we?” She’s got the camera facing too close and he can faintly make out his dad watching TV in the background. 

“No I’ve been doing alright,” He smiles as if he wasn’t just sitting around whining to himself about being alone. 

“Have you met anyone so far? Please don’t tell me you’ve been sitting around alone over there this whole time, you’re a sweet boy, you should get out there and make some friends,” she exclaims, as George tries his hardest not to roll his eyes. 

“Not really, I guess not proper friends. But there is this one guy, at this breakfast place? He’s nice.” He tries to act nonchalant, but she sees right through him. 

“Oh, George! Tell me all about him, age, name, does he have a good job? Well he works at a diner so it can’t be all that great-” 

“It’s nothing like that,” George responds quickly cutting her off, “Just someone I’ve talked to a couple of times. I’m thinking about seeing if he wants to hang out, maybe get his number, nothing crazy.” He says, fiddling with the strings of his hoodie.

“Well, you need to get on that soon before you’re already shipping yourself back here. Now let me tell you about what Jess has been up to since you’ve left.” She replies, quickly going on to tell him about all the exciting things his sister is working on at her new job. He smiles, and the sound of his family’s chatter makes the hotel room feel a little empty. 

// 

Even though this will be his fifth time visiting the same restaurant, he orders eggs benedict for the fourth time in a row. He’s a simple man, and he likes his routine, even when there’s nothing normal about his life at the moment. Dream seems to take note of this and like with many other things, teases him relentlessly about it. 

“Jeez man you’re gonna buy us out of all our hollandaise, give the cooks a little variety here.” He grins, all teeth and bright pink lips that George has to force himself to look up from every time he speaks. 

“It’s a perfectly good meal!” George argues, pretending to be offended as Dream sets the plate down in front of him. 

“As long as you're happy,” He chuckles. “Just as a note, I’m actually off work early today, so someone else is gonna take over your table.” 

“Oh,” George’s smile falters a little. “Anywhere special you’re headed?” He inquiries, trying not to sound too disappointed.

“No not really, my boss is tired of me spending all my time here so he told me I should probably take some time off, so I’m taking the next couple days off.” He says as he reaches his arms behind his neck to take off the apron.

“Would you like to sit with me?” He tries to say it with confidence and is pleased when Dream smiles and slides right into the booth across from him. 

“I would love to, though I don’t think this is what Randall meant by taking a break.” 

His smile drops when he realizes Dream was just about to leave and finally take some time off, and here he goes asking the poor guy to stay even longer. He’s not entirely sure what to respond to that when Dream starts again. 

“It’s fine man I’m just messing with you, I didn’t have anything planned anyway. So, what’s a guy like you doing in the middle of Florida this time of year?” 

At first, he isn’t entirely sure how to respond, afraid that for some reason Dream would judge him for his erratic plans and assume he’s ungrateful. The past couple of days the two have exchanged some pleasant banter but otherwise had minimal conversation, and he definitely doesn't want to screw up their situation now by being a moron. He’s watching Dream fiddle with the little cloth napkins on his side of the table that are always set up despite no one ever sitting on the other end. 

He pauses for a moment, briefly considering coming up with something simple and witty, but his mind runs blank. 

“I hate my job. Well, I guess I can’t hate something I haven’t even started yet, but I’m pretty sure I’ll hate it.” 

“Oh, well that doesn’t sound very fun. What makes you think you’re going to hate it?”

“Well, it’s a good job really, pays super well and everything, I even get good health insurance, dental, 401k, the whole nine yards!” 

“But you said it’s not going to make you happy, so why are you doing it?” Dream says, leaning forward with his head propped up on his hands on top of the table. His tone is suddenly so much more serious and genuine than George has heard from him so far, and he squirms under his gaze. 

“I- I’m not sure. I got my degree in computer science because I liked coding as a kid, but it’s not fun when you’re working on keeping some sleazy guys’ browser searches private. I like computers and stuff still, just not when it’s so structured? There’s no creativity, just doing the same thing every day at the cubicle and going home at five. I guess.” He says with his voice is unsteady, because even he didn’t know what to do. Everyone kept telling him just to look at other jobs, something at a startup where he could be in control of his own projects, but the idea of taking charge of his life like that terrified him. 

Dream seems to reflect for a moment, and for a couple of seconds, George is almost certain that he’s going to call him an idiot for running away from his problems. Even though Dream doesn’t seem like the kind of person to be like that, he feels like it would be warranted. 

“So basically, you just needed a period to think about your life choices? Like some time to see if what you’re doing is the right decision before committing to doing it forever?” Dream asks, settling back into his seat.

“Well, when you put it like that it sounds a lot simpler than how it is in my head.” George huffs. Dream laughs, low and softly shaking his head. 

“Doesn’t have to be complicated. Just spend your time here enjoying yourself, worry about the rest later.” 

“I’ve been trying!” George protests. “It’s a bit difficult when you have no idea where you’re going through, your roads make no sense and your public transit is an absolute nightmare.” His face wrinkles as Dream starts laughing, clearly enjoying how upset George seems over Florida’s transportation system. 

“Well, it sounds like you need a bit of a tour guide, how about I take you around the city today? I’ve got the whole day off, might as well take advantage and get out for once.” He says as he watches George stuff a bit of egg in his mouth. 

“Now that sounds like a good plan to me.”

//

At first, when they leave, George feels a bit anxious at the idea of spending the entire day with someone who is essentially a stranger, but the feeling quickly dissipates as he gets into Dreams car and they start talking more on their way around the city. He’s not entirely sure where they’re headed, but Dream turns up the radio of the old van he drives and he forgets to ask as the sound of some Mac Demarco song plays through the speakers. 

He tries not to stare, but he can’t help when his eyes flicker to the way Dream sits when he drives and his hands against the wheel. He’s pointing out little things as he drives, little anecdotes about his coworkers having to rush to the grocery store when they’re out of eggs or places he goes to get the best milkshakes in town. George starts comparing it to where he lives back home, starts noticing how similar the two places are despite being thousands of miles and an ocean apart. 

They pull up to a lake that George hasn’t seen so far, quiet and empty with giant weepy looking trees covering the ground and shading the ground from the blistering sun. He looks around as Dream pulls into some empty space right by a bridge leading to the lake, and gives George a smile. 

“So this is what Floridians get up to, finding random pools of water to look at?” He laughs. 

“Well I was going to suggest fishing, but by all means let’s just stare at still water for a couple of hours.” He grins, laughing when George rolls his eyes and steps out of the car. 

“You know, I live by a beach by home and I still don’t think anyone has taken me out to go fishing for fun.” 

“Hey we get to eat whatever we catch, tell me how that’s not fun,” Dream argues, as he pulls open the trunk to pull out a red cooler and a couple of rods. “It’s quite possibly the best use of your time.” 

He’s a little grossed out at the prospect of having to kill his food himself, but Dream seems so excited and sure that this will be enjoyable, so he plays along.   
He takes George out to an area with small boats for rental and they climb aboard hauling their gear. He can’t but laugh at how absurd this feels as Dream powers on the engine and he feels the wind threaten to blow off the floppy brown hat Dream made him wear. 

He has to admit, it really is beautiful watching the sunlight brush over the blue water, the smell of salted water flooding his nostrils and spraying lightly around them. 

Eventually, they settle farther into the lake and Dream starts doing all these things George doesn’t understand to set up their rods. 

“So what, we just sit back and wait for a fish to bite?” He asks, watching Dream settle down and open a second cooler and offer him a sprite. 

“Well basically, yeah,” He says as he stretches over to hand him the can. “Once they start biting there’s more to do, but for now you get to sit back and look at everything around. It’s nicer on days like this, fewer people crowding the water.” 

George hums, eyes scanning the rest of the lake around them. There are fat little birds all around, finding food or flying overhead. There are other people out too, but far away enough their bodies just look like little blobs of color on their own boats. There are even people lounging back by the bank, having picnics with their families, and enjoying the sun. 

For a while, they wait, talking about how Dream’s uncle taught him how to fish and how he still visits this lake every now and then when his roommate gets cranky about craving Dreams cooking. It’s simple conversation, but Dream makes everything sound like an adventure. Eventually, a fish bites and George freaks out because he has no idea what he’s doing, the other boy didn’t even explain what he was meant to do.

“Dream!” He screeches, holding on to the pole and laughing. 

“Oh god, here like this” Dream laughs, wheezing and standing up to try to help. He leans over and takes hold of the shorter boy’s hands, tugging up and moving George’s hands around for him. 

“Alright, now you’re going to try to reel it in, slow and easy, just like that yeah.” He says, still laughing with his breath puffing over George’s ear. George tries not to flush, realizing now how close they are. Eventually, the line pulls over the water, and Dream helps him pull the wriggly little fish onto the boat. 

“Okay, I’m pretty sure you’re not going to want to watch this next bit.” Dream says, pulling the hook and taking the little fish by his hands. 

He closes his eyes, but can’t help but peek by the time Dream has already sliced through the fish and starts rinsing it out in the water.

“That’s disgusting. How on earth are you doing that without throwing up.” He says as he watches in gross fascination.

“You get used to it after doing it your whole life, most people here at least know how to. These guys are invasive actually, so they let you take as many as you can catch. We won’t need that many though, taking home five or six is good enough for a week’s lunch cause they’re so fat.” Dream says, setting up the rods with more worms. 

There’s something oddly calming about the way he sees Dream methodically setting up the lines, almost like second nature. Back in Brighton, the pier can get pretty full of people fishing, but he never understood why someone would wait around all day just to catch some fish. Here though, watching the sun hit the marsh and the way Dream smiles as he explains how it works, he thinks he might understand why. Not that he could see himself ever doing this on his own again, that would be torture. But here like this, maybe Dream could convince him to go again. 

By the time they’ve caught enough fish to eat for a week, the sun has begun to settle over the sky and has turned the sky a soft pink. The people at the boat place are friendly and all smiles, talking to Dream in a way that makes it seem like they’re two old friends meeting again. He offered to cook for George tonight, but he promised to call his mom over dinner that night after multiple texts worried about her son, so they changed plans to have a little barbeque at Dreams house the next day. He feels sweaty and gross, and the water definitely left his clothes with a bit of a funky smell, but none of that matters as he watches Dream practically bouncing back to the car cooler in hand. 

The ride to George’s hotel goes by fast, and suddenly he’s saying thank you for the day out and closing the front door of the hotel behind him. He stands in front of the door smiling like an idiot until he notices the front desk clerk smiling at him, and proceeds to rush up the stairs blushing like mad and swinging the door open in front of him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope that you like it!! Thank you to anyone who's read or liked this so far, it means a lot to me!! Hope everyone's having a nice day, remember to wear a mask and stay safe :) Every time I write more of this story I forget there's no pandemic in their universe and I have to stop myself from mentioning masks or quarantine LMAO

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! I hope you at least kind of like this, I'm not exactly sure how often I'll be updating this, I just like fluffy happy stories and this ship has so many depressing fics so I wrote this lol. I'm actually in college so tbh this is me projecting onto george because I just want a gamer gf to teach me to play minecraft on PC. If you have any criticism please comment below! I'm very new to this and I doubt anyone will actually read this but if you do any kind of feedback is very welcome!! u can reach me @squiddypants on tumblr, it's not a dnf blog it's just me being gay on main


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